With respect to an antifoaming agent for food, mostly a liquid-type agent mainly composed of silicone resin and a powder-type or a liquid-type agent mainly composed of hydrogenated oil or glycerol fatty acid ester have been used (refer, for example, to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Hei-04/20,257).
With regard to the use of the antifoaming agent, a method wherein the agent is added during the steps of manufacturing the food and one in which it is previously added to the food materials have been employed. When the latter method is used, there is a disadvantage in that the liquid-type antifoaming agent is hard to use in case the food material is powdery and that the agent of a powder type mainly composed of hydrogenated oil or glycerol fatty acid ester has a bad dispersibility in water and exhibits almost no antifoaming ability at ambient temperature. The inventors of this invention have conducted an extensive study for an antifoaming agent which is powdery, exhibits a good dispersibility in water and is able to be expected to have a satisfactory antifoaming effect even at ambient temperature and have achieved this invention.